


nights and mornings at shell cottage

by rileyhart



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, F/M, Fluff/Comfort, morning naps, nightmares and bed sharing, shell cottage missing moment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 19:16:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19279462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rileyhart/pseuds/rileyhart
Summary: in between days of plotting to rob gringotts and nights of revisiting that basement in malfoy manor, ron and hermione find a morning of peace at shell cottage.





	nights and mornings at shell cottage

**Author's Note:**

> idk what this is have fun kiddos

_ Hermione screams above him. A bloodcurdling, about to die, pain beyond pain scream. _

_ He thumps the stone wall. His hands throb. “Hermione!” He bellows.  _

_ His throat aches and his vision is blurry. _

_ “Hermione! Hermione! Hermione!” _

_ She screams and he yells and the walls are closing in on him. _

_ “Hermione!” _

 

He wakes up in a sweat, sitting bolt upright on his mattress on the floor of the living room of Shell Cottage.

His heart is thumping in his chest and tears are pricking in his eyes.

Outside he can hear the waves crashing against the rocks.

A reassuring hand is on his shoulder. “Ron,” murmurs Harry, awake next to him. “Ron, are you alright?”

Ron jerks away from the hand, standing up. “Fine.” He mutters. “Bathroom.”

He feels Harry’s eyes on him as he leaves the room.

He walks up the stairs and turns towards Hermione and Luna’s room. 

The hallway is lit only by the thin ray of moonlight shining in through the windows. Their door is open ajar and he peers in.

The moonlight falls across them. They’re asleep. Peaceful. 

His eyes linger on Hermione for a moment. He wonders if that sleeping potion Fleur gives her stops nightmares too.

He pulls the door almost shut and heads back downstairs.

Harry doesn’t say anything even though Ron can tell he’s still awake. He’s grateful for the silence as he lies back down and shuts his eyes; focusing on the waves.

* * *

“That potion Fleur gives me always makes me groggy,” Hermione says quietly, sitting up in bed; her mug of tea held with both her hands.

It’s morning and the others are downstairs having breakfast. Ron had offered to take Hermione’s food up for her when he’d seen Fleur heading up with the tray. With their constant plotting to break into Gringotts the two never get a moment alone together.

“Yeah but at least you sleep,” Ron reasons.

Hermione’s brow furrows and she looks at him questioningly. “You don’t?”

He shrugs and meets her eye. “Not really.”

Hermione looks back at him, the question she dare not ask him on her tongue.

She looks away and takes a sip of her tea.

She sighs like it’s a great effort and shuts her eyes.

“Are you okay?” Ron asks immediately, reaching out to touch her arm.

She nods, eyes still closed. “I just want to sleep. All the time.”

“Sleep now then,” Ron tells her. “Harry won’t be up here for another thirty minutes, I reckon.”

“I feel lazy,” Hermione tells him, opening her eyes, “like I should be appreciating every moment of life, dancing on the waves or something, after everything that happened.”

Ron smiles at her. “You survived Bellatrix Lestrange. You can do whatever you damn want. And if that’s sleep then sleep.”

Hermione lets out half a chuckle. It’s the most she’s laughed since they arrived here. She hands Ron that cup of tea and settles down in her bed, but she doesn’t close her eyes, watching Ron instead.

She’s only just notice that the chair he is sitting in is far too small. He’s sitting at an awkward angle with one leg bent and hanging over the side.

“What?” He asks her.

“You don’t look very comfortable,” she comments.

“I’m fine,” he tells her with a shrug. He hadn’t really thought about it to be honest. He’d been too busy worrying about her.

“Okay,” she replies softly, shutting her eyes.

A moment later however she opens them again and stares at him accusingly. “Just get in the bed, Ronald.” She tells him crossly.

“What?! No! I’m fine just here!” He retorts, his ears hot.

“It’s weird, I feel like you’re watching me! Just lie down in the bed and close your eyes.”

“No way, I’m not even tired!”

“Oh don’t be ridiculous, just get in the bed. There’s no need to be weird about it.” 

“Hermione, I’m-” but she cuts him off.

“ _ Ron _ .” She says sternly and he sighs, getting out of the tiny chair and lying down on the bed next to her (on top of the covers though).

She smiles at him and shuts her eyes. “See,” she says to him sleepily, “isn’t that better?”

“Whatever,” he murmurs back, his eyes already shut.

* * *

By the time Harry finishes breakfast and heads up stairs Ron and Hermione are asleep. He watches them from the doorway, their chests rising and falling at the same time. He notices that again, their hands are mere centimetres from each other, as if they’d fallen asleep holding hands.

His stomach squirms and he thinks of Ginny.

He looks away from the pair of them. He’ll give them a moment longer to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> comments make me happy!!!


End file.
